Depictions of foster care adoption in fiction (TV, movies, novels, etc.)?
What TV shows, movies, fictional books, etc. are you aware of that have plotlines involving adoption from foster care? (For the purposes of this question, I'm asking about foster care adoption specifically, not domestic infant or international.)
Do you feel these are a fair and/or realistic portrayal of adoption from foster care?
Thanks!
2009-01-19T20:05:14Z
Off the top of my own head, I can come up with the movie Martian Child and the plot of quite a number of episodes of Judging Amy.
I'm sure there must be more out there, though, thus my curiosity.
2009-01-19T20:15:45Z
BOTZ, I thought Martian Child was actually pretty good, and I'd recommend it. It's not entirely realistic (for example, the drama of the social worker considering removing the child from the placement seemed somewhat manufactured to me since there were no safety issues and the child seemed to be improving steadily anyway, and I don't think a sane social worker in the real world would expect immediate perfection once a child is in a permanent home) but one thing I found really good about the film is that it portrays a true struggle for a hurt kid and an adoptive parent to form an attachment... rather than glossing over that process.
It's always going to be an easier thing in the movies than in real life, of course, because you can only do so much in a two hour running time, but I thought they made a good effort to show that attachment isn't instant even when people work at it.
2009-01-19T20:21:04Z
Looney Tunes, Judging Amy actually had quite a number of different storylines about foster care and adoption, since the main character is a family court judge and her mom is a social worker. While I do remember that plotline you describe, there were also several others.
What sticks in my mind was an episode called "Adoption Day" about a day when they try to get as many fost-adopt cases through the court as possible, and another where the girl desperately wanted to be adopted before she turned 18. All this was quite positive, and the older girl was really sweet and had no apparent major issues.
So while Judging Amy hasn't always shown foster care adoption in a positive light, it hasn't always been negative, either. Which is something, at least.
MamaKate2009-01-19T23:00:11Z
Favorite Answer
"The Great Gilly Hopkins" is the first thing that jumped into my head. The movie is available but I read that book about a hundred times as a kid and re-read it again this past summer. I think it should be required reading for foster care training.
Other movies: "Candle Shoe" - I LOVED this movie as a kid. "I Am Sam" "December Boys" The Glass House" "Just Like the Son" "Fred Claus" "Meet the Robinsons" "Foster Child"
Books (I haven't read them all yet, but this is my list.): "Dancing With Elvis" "Defect" "Pictures of Hollis Woods" (I think this is a movie too.) "The Sorta Sisters" "What I Call Life" "Baby" "Gossamer" "Strays" "The Road To Paris" "The Boy From The Basement" "Lullabies For Little Criminals" "My Loco Life" "Where I'd Like To Be" "One True Friend" "The Life All Around Me" "The Miracle Life Of Mint" "Little Soldier" "The Monster in Me" "Dakota Dream" "Leonardo's Hand" "The Ocean Within" "Tin Can Tucker" "When The Road Ends" "Won't Know til I Get There" "You're Dead" "Memories of a Cherry Blossom Tree"
TV: Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends (I adore this cartoon!) Judging Amy The Law & Order Series CSI ("Sara Sidle" was a foster child) The Cheetah Girls ("Dorinda" is a foster child) One World
There are more but this was what I could come up with for now.:) Some are more accurate than others. Some are based on fact. Some are total fantasy.
In the current plot line of a TV show called "House," the supervising doctor (Cuddy?) is currently a foster mother to an infant.
House is a medical drama. A young girl came into the hospital with some problems and it turns out that she had something related to pregnancy. She had the baby in an abandoned home and left it there crying as she felt she had nowhere to turn. (Her parents did not know she was pregnant, neither did the father of the child) The supervisor lady went to the abandoned home the girl described to find a homeless family there taking care of the infant. She gave the baby to the girl in the hospital prior to her dying. The maternal and paternal grandparents did not want the baby. They did not say anything about the teen father's wishes (which made me very mad). Apparently the system allowed this supervisor lady to take the baby home with her (and I think it hinted at changing the child's name). In the last episode, it covered the home inspection from the foster system and that is it so far. The previews suggest that she will be taking leave from her job in the next episode. It is an ongoing storyline. (This same woman tried to adopt an infant, but the girl decided to parent in an earlier episode this season.)
I do not feel it is quite realistic because it just is not this easy or fast to get things rolling usually. (She was not approved to be a foster parent at all as far as I know prior to this child coming to the show- the home inspection was done while the baby was already there etc) I am glad that they decided to make it so that she is fostering first though because it would truly be unrealistic if the girl was adopted already.
Off hand, I remember the foster-adopt plotline in "Six Feet Under" where a mixed-race homosexual couple adopted two African American school-age brothers.
The children (particularly the oldest boy) certainly had some issues and I recall a scene with the obviously overworked social worker who basically had the idea that if the boys weren't being mistreated, the placement was working out fine. I remember the boys stealing a car, threatening the foster parents with knives, stealing, lying, etc.
The crux of it came when the children confided that they had been bounced around so many times that they thought no home was forever so it was all about doing whatever they wanted because every situation was temporary.
Ended up with the foster parents starting to talk about what they were all going to do together next summer, or next winter. Putting the future into context for the children by including them.
Stuart Little, Problem Child, Annie...those are the ones that spring right to mind.
I don't think they are realistic (with one tiny exception) because nobody sang about it ("Maybe", "Tomorrow", "We got Annie!") any of the times I have witnessed children being adopted from foster care and Stuart Little was a mouse being adopted by humans.
The one realistic thing I saw was in the movie Problem Child, when the fost-adopt father (played by John Ritter) was told how many homes the child had been in previously. I don't remember the number but it seems like it was in the 20s. That seems pretty realistic (for some kids).
Oh...Martian Child -- that's another one, although I haven't seen it. It stars John Cusack. Oh...and there was an Adam Sandler one (although I'm not sure the child was actually a foster child)...Big Daddy, I think...or something like that. I just realized something very interesting -- In only one of these movies was there an a-mother involved, all the others were adopted (or not) by single men. Huh...that must be a selling point for a movie. I know Disney loves single fathers and dead mothers.
ETA: Just thought of a couple more -- Anne of Green Gables (though I don't believe she was actually adopted) and Pictures of Hollis Woods.